Let’s celebrate some NSVs!

I’ve been away from the scale for about 2 months. Since the first of the year my weight-loss has been pretty non-existent compared to last year. I’ve been hovering around 174 all year. In March I left my favorite gym and the scale I’ve been using for weigh-ins since June 2011. I decided that since I couldn’t be consistent (sticking with the same scale) I would just focus on some non-scale victories for right now. So far my favorites have been buying a size large t-shirt for the first time since early high school and comfortably wearing a size 14 trouser. Woot-woot!

Not wearing the t-shirt, but a top from NY & Co. where I have never been able to shop before

What non-scale victories are you celebrating or are you a slave to the scale?

Lazy Sunday morning

Good morning and Happy Easter! I woke up early this morning to enjoy the beautiful sunny weather we are having in Richmond and to get my meal planning done for the week.

Around February the 1500 calories/day diet I’ve been on since June seemed to become extremely insuficient. I felt ravenous on a regular basis which did not make for a good look come meal times. I had another InBody evaluation done and whatdoyouknow, my basal metabolic rate (BMR) had increased quite a bit to 1477 kcal. Your BMR is the number of calories you burn per day at rest. Just living and breathing. Only getting 23 more calories than that a day with 3-5 days of exercise per week equaled one hungry girl. I’m definitely still in weight loss mode (I need to remind myself of this constantly right now) so I’ve up my daily calorie intake to 1600 calories/day. This is the first week so we shall see how it goes.

I don’t what will be on which day yet, but here is what I’m planning to cook this week:

Whew, that’s a bit of food! But, I’m a fan of the freezer and no eating out this week for either of us. What are you cooking this week?

Plan your work. Work your plan

This week I finally got a meal plan done early enough that I could get my grocery shopping done on Saturday. I’m a bit of a freak when it comes to grocery shopping. There are usually multiple stores involved, color coded lists and the like. On more then one occasion I’ve been complimented on my cart organization. But I digress.

8x10 Plan Your Work Work Your Plan Print from bellabyte on Etsy.com

I’ve been fighting a loosing battle with meal planning lately. I will get it accomplished sometime on Sunday afternoon, but then the day is gone so very little to no cooking/prepping gets done. Then I’m cobbling together meals which usually equals eating out. Well, I’m tightening the belt on planning and eating out before I have to loosen my belt. I’m loving my almost-size-14 waist a bit too much for that! This week’s plan is pretty okay I think – there are 3 vegetarian-esque days but I’m thinking I could always squeeze more vegetables into the plan. My ambition burned out today before I could plan all 5 meals for all 7 days but I will get to that tomorrow morning so I can be ready for the week. Here’s whats on tap for dinner and subsequently lunch for the next day:

Dinner plan for the week of March 18, 2012
Sunday – Honey Orange Chicken, sauteed spinach & garlic, apricot couscous
Monday – Garlic shrimp, whole wheat pasta, garden salad with balsamic dressing
Tuesday – Actually delicious turkey burgers, whole wheat buns, roasted sweet potatoes
Wednesday – Lasagna, garden salad with blue cheese dressing
Thursday – Vegetarian taco salad
Friday – Maple salmon, wild rice, sauteed string beans
Saturday – Veggie pizza

What are you cooking/eating this week to help you maintain a healthy or healthier lifestyle?

I’m no spring chicken, but doing the Spring Chick Challenge!

I have really enjoyed and benefited from the online fitness community. Reading blogs of other folks who are on their fitness journey has really helped me on mine. Two of the blogs that I read pretty regularly (this and this) mentioned the Spring Chick Challenge, so I made my way over to the Real Chicks Getting Fit site to check it out. SCORE! I found a treasure trove of even more folks blogging about getting healthy! I have found that challenging myself with a goal is a good thing, so I was down for a challenge (or two) in the new year.

The Spring Chick Challenge is hosted by Stormy@ Big Butt Theory, is 11 weeks running from January 2 – March 19, and has the following requirements:

1. Commit to a NSV (non scale victory) to be assessed at the start and the conclusion of the challenge.
2. Commit to a set of nutrition parameters and track via MyFitnessPal or Sparkpeople or WW.
3. Commit to a set of exercise parameters. These can be as loose or as flexible as you feel work for your personality, schedule, etc.
4. Commit to blogging at least twice weekly and 1 of those times must be you check in with a complete up date on your progress. All other blogs could include new insights, results of weekly challenges, or just letting others know how you are doing.
5. Commit to support... both giving and receiving. Check others blogs and comment as you feel motivated to do.

Here are my goals:

Non-scale victory

• Keep my blood pressure in a healthy, normal range: assessed in December 2011 with my physician and finally in the 120′s/80′s! Will check once per week.

• Get to a comfortable dress size 14: currently a size 16, closer to an 18 in the hips/thighs.

Nutrition

• Continue to use MyFitnessPal.com to track nutrition and keep calories around 1400 per day.

• Continue to get at least 64 fluid oz of water daily

• Keep carbohydrate grams per meal from grain sources below 25.

Exercise

• Complete weight workout and some form of interval training (45 min – 1 hour) 3 times per week; continue to progress in the 9 week Couch-to-5K training program 3 times per week; continue to progress in the 100 Push-up Challenge 3 times per week.

Blogging

• Share with you guys 2 times per week (this will be the REAL challenge!)

Support

• Doing it! Commenting on blog posts, connecting with folks on Twitter, and connecting with folks on MyFitnessPal.

============

Spring Chick Challenge intro:
Name: Dawn Anderson
Blog URL: http://www.iamdawnanderson.com
Twitter: @djeneen
MyFitnessPal: djeneen
Age: 41
Location: RVA (Richmond, VA)

(almost) Wordless Wednesday

Weigh-in Wednesday #4

Hey everyone! I’m not going to let my documentation of my journey become a series of exercise videos and weigh-ins, I promise! Life has been a bit hectic lately (including spending last weekend at Chippenham Medical Center ) but I’m still hanging in there and will be posting more soon.

Weight July 17, 2011: 201.2
Weight July 23, 2011: 197.4
Weekly total = -3.8
(this seems a bit extreme, so I’m chalking it up to a wonky scale)

Weigh-in Wednesday #3

Sorry that I’ve been about a day behind all week! Last week’s weigh in was not pretty. It was my first realization that this whole getting healthier thing is a process and set backs are bound to happen.

Weight July 10, 2011: 199.8
Weight July 17, 2011: 201.2
Weekly total = +1.4

This week has been crazy busy including me throwing out my back Thursday at work. This has eliminated 2 days of working out, but I’m back at it tomorrow with weights and cardio!

Weigh-in Wednesday #2

I had to post this right now because my co-workers are all enjoying Panera bagels and cream cheese and it’s a bit torturous (I loves me a toasted bagel with a smear and tomato!!) Drumroll please…

Weight July 3, 2011: 202.5
Weight July 10, 2011: 199.8
Weekly total = -2.7

Can you believe it?! Under the 200 pound mark! I haven’t seen that since college in the early 1990′s.

Firsts and lasts

This past week I’ve been still feeling less than stellar so I only got in my 3 interval training workouts and 1 additional aerobic workout. I also haven’t had much of an appetite (which is ALWAYS disturbing to a foodie like me) and didn’t meet my calorie requirement 3 days this week. Getting some solid meal planning done and making sure I get my 1500 calories every day is the goal for the next week.

Last week did have some firsts for me. Last weekend I decided to hit the holiday sales and look for some dedicated workout gear. I’ve found working out in cotton t-shirts is less than enjoyable since they stay wet so long. I had absolutely NO LUCK at the Dick’s Sporting Goods at Stony Point. How can a full 1/4 of your 2-story store be dedicated to women’s wear and you have nothing larger than a very tiny XL?! Anyway I headed to my stand by – JC Penny at Regency Square Mall (plus-size ladies, don’t sleep on Penny’s!). Sure enough, I got everything I was looking for in that one store, on sale plus a coupon discount. For the first time ever in my life I now own a sports bra. Coupled with that it’s the only racer back anything I’ve ever had on. Ever. I also purchased a work out top made from that fancy mesh that drys quickly, and (drum roll please)… it came from the Misses department. The 1x in the Plus size was too big. Wow. Let’s just say shopping in the “regular” size area was foreign territory for me.

The lasts? I’m down to my last pair of pants. Literally. I have 1 pair of black slacks that fit. Thank goodness I had decided to embrace my inner minimalist before embarking on this journey. I donated the last of the too-big britches to my local Goodwill today. Looks like I’ll be blowing the dust off the sewing machines and whipping out some things to wear to work.

Weigh-in Wednesday #1

With all the health unknowns going on these days, I’m happy to see a more reasonable weight loss this past week.

Weight June 26, 2011: 203.3
Weight July 3, 2011: 202.5
Weekly total = -0.8